


Bronze and Gold

by Sholio



Category: Dark Tower - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pernese Dragons, Fire Lizard (Dragonriders of Pern), Gen, accidental animal acquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:01:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26583328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Roland, with a helpless look that sat awkwardly on his hard features, was covered in tiny dinosaurs.No, Susannah thought. They were jewel-colored and winged. Susannah, or rather Odetta, had had more than a few books of fairy tales on her childhood bookshelves. These might be tiny, but she knew a dragon when she saw one.
Relationships: Jake Chambers & Eddie Dean & Susannah Dean & Roland Deschain
Comments: 8
Kudos: 28
Collections: Hold Me: A Comfort Prompfest





	Bronze and Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Edonohana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/gifts).



> Written for [Comfort Fest](https://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1347813.html) for this prompt: _Any or original, fire lizard hatching. This does not need to be canon for your fandom._
> 
> This is technically a fusion with the _Dragonriders of Pern_ books, but all you really need to know is that fire lizards are tiny dragons.

They found Roland around sunset. There had been a sharp disagreement about whether to go after him at first; Jake insisted they ought to, Eddie pointed out that Susannah's chair was going to be next to impossible to maneuver on the beach, and Susannah pointed out that if anyone could take care of himself, that person was Roland — but when the hours passed and he didn't come back from scouting, the disagreement dropped away, and they went.

It was slow going, but they could manage it, down by the water where the waves had packed the sand hard and smooth. Susannah noticed Eddie's frequent, nervous glances at the pink and gold waves; she was fairly sure none of them would be _entirely_ comfortable on beaches ever again.

"There he is!" Jake called, and ran on ahead, with Oy galloping next to him.

Susannah glimpsed Roland down among the rocks, and her heart lurched. Jack scrambled over the rocks and vanished. Eddie strained to push the chair through the sand, until finally they hit the rocks and he gave her a speaking look. Susannah sighed and reached up her arms, and Eddie scooped her out of the chair and carefully went around the rocks, wading in the edge of the sea, to find out what was happening with the rest of their ka-tet.

Nothing too alarming, as it turned out. Roland was down on his knees among the rocks, and Jake crouched next to him, but neither Jake nor Oy looked too alarmed.

And Roland...

Roland, with a helpless look that sat awkwardly on his hard features, was covered in tiny dinosaurs.

No, Susannah thought. They were jewel-colored and winged. Susannah, or rather Odetta, had had more than a few books of fairy tales on her childhood bookshelves. These might be tiny, but she knew a dragon when she saw one.

It was obviously enough what had happened. There were bits of broken eggshell all over the beach, glimmering with opalescent colors in the sunset light. And on the whole, Susannah thought, after all they'd seen, the sight of Roland crawling with baby dragons wasn't the strangest, even though Roland looked — _weirded out_ was probably the euphemism Eddie would use. Like he couldn't entirely believe this was happening to him.

Eddie burst into a sudden, startled laugh. Susannah looked at him sharply, but it wasn't mocking; he was staring at Roland with a mix of wonder, delight, and a sort of surprised jealousy.

"Those are fire lizards," Eddie said, and he laughed again. "You found fucking _fire lizards,_ man."

"Your world has these?" Roland asked, plucking a small dragon off his shoulder and trying to push it into his lap where at least some of the others were.

"No," Susannah and Jake said simultaneously, and glanced at each other. Susannah went on, "I think he's probably talking about a movie, aren't you, sugar?"

"Books," Eddie said. "Come on, haven't you — no, they probably didn't have them in your time yet. Jake?" Jake shook his head. "Oh, come _on._ Am I seriously the only one who's read those?"

Roland winced as one of the small dragons bit his ear. There were scratches all over his hands and forearms. "Do these books have instructions on caring for them?"

"They just hatched out, right?" Eddie asked, and Roland nodded. "They're hungry, man." 

Eddie crouched down, carefully lowering Susannah to the sand. He reached into his pocket for a piece of jerky and held it out — then almost lost a finger when one of the tiny dragons (fire lizards, he'd said) snapped it out of his hand. It lost its balance on Roland's shoulder and fell to the sand in its eagerness; then another one piled on top of it, trying to snap the jerky out of its jaws. Susannah reached out to separate them, then had to jerk her hand back when they both snapped at her.

"They don't really seem to like anyone but Roland," Jake said. "One of them bit Oy!"

"Oy," Oy agreed, licking his paw.

* * *

In the end they took them back to the campsite, because what else were they going to do? They still had half of the deerlike thing Roland had shot yesterday, which they'd been cutting up to dry. That project fell apart, figuratively and literally, as soon as the fire lizards caught the smell of meat; they tumbled, swarmed, and wobbled off Roland onto the carcass, and knocked down the drying racks, and relentlessly began gnawing on any part of the animal that would fit into their tiny jaws.

Roland crouched down next to them (accompanied by an absolutely fascinated Jake) and began cutting off smaller pieces for them, while Eddie and Susannah built the fire back up, trying not to stare too much at the sight of Roland feeding pieces of raw meat to six tiny dragons.

"Our _lives,"_ Eddie said in an undertone.

Susannah grinned. "So, these books," she said quietly, glancing over at Roland, who had a small dragon on his head and another one trying to crawl up his somewhat bloodied shirt. "They _are_ fiction, aren't they?" She knew Eddie's world and hers weren't exactly the same, but she didn't think he would have failed to mention a difference like dragons. On the other hand, if they were considered perfectly ordinary in his world...

"Of course they're fiction." Eddie frowned. "At least, I always thought so. These might just be something similar." He glanced at Roland again, as one of the small dragons, flashing jewel-bright gold, spread its wings and attempted a short, gliding flight from Roland's shoulder to the top of the dead animal's hide. "Uh... _very_ similar."

"Want to tell me about them?" This was a window into Eddie's childhood that she didn't get all that often. He didn't talk about it much, even with her.

"They're just...books, you know? I used to get 'em from the library. Henry used to make fun of them." He shrugged, and she could see the habits of the years in that shrug. In that regard, her world and his weren't that similar; teenage boys weren't supposed to like cute baby dragons where she came from either.

"Guys, look," Jake whispered in rapture. He'd finally managed to coax the smallest of the dragons, a tiny green one, to take a piece of meat out of his fingers.

Eddie looked desperately wistful. Susannah gave him a small shove. "Go feed the baby dragons, love, I can see you want to."

She joined them a few minutes later. They all collected abundant scratches and tiny dragon bites, but by the time full darkness had fallen, Eddie had a metallic bronze dragon tucked into his shirt (and looked completely _thrilled_ about it) and a blue one had crawled up on Susannah's shoulder and twined its tiny claws into her hair, a tickle she could feel whenever she moved her head.

"Are we going to name them?" Jake whispered. The green dragon had fallen asleep in his lap.

"Oy!" Oy said quietly.

"We'll address this tomorrow," Roland said softly — as well he might, with three sleeping dragons draped on him. "We can't take them with us."

"Dude, don't be ridiculous, do you have any idea how much help _six fire lizards_ are going to be?" Eddie asked in disbelief. "We can use them to send messages—"

"They're not carrier pigeons, Eddie," Susannah said, but just then the dragon nuzzled her ear with a ticklish little thrill that made her think of what it used to feel like when her childhood pet cat (she hadn't thought about that cat in years) used to curl up against her neck while she lay on the couch.

"And hunt for us, and scout for us," Eddie went on. "Anyway, it'd be cruel to leave them behind."

"We'll talk about this in the morning," Roland said flatly, but one of his callused and scratched-up hands had curled over the small triangle-shaped head of the golden dragon curled up in his lap, and Susannah had a feeling that Roland knew he'd already lost the argument.


End file.
